This time around, the bill’s sponsor, Rep. Lou Lang (D-Skokie), says there are tighter restrictions on the amount of medical marijuana distributed to patients, and he’s taken out the grow-your-own provisions that opponents criticized during the last General Assembly.

Neither the failed bill nor the one currently pending have allowed prospective medical marijuana merchants to set up marijuana dispensaries, or restaurants cooking with marijuana recipes for medical cannabis cardholders, as in California and Colorado, respectively.

Lang has denied he intends his proposal to be a gateway to the full legalization of marijuana.

Technically, Illinois authorized medical marijuana in 1978. But implementation was left to the Public Health Department and it never took action, so the law has been in limbo.